As we climbed into the car and turned on Radio 5 Live, a presenter complained it was a day of "nil-nil-itis". "We're suffering from that," said my daughter. A wise head on young shoulders. Vale have had four 0-0s in our last five league games. We have the third best defence in the whole Football League. Sadly we currently have a strike-rate worthy of the drop-zone. The scoring production line that was the Richards boys - Marc and Justin - has dried up of late.

The other conversation was being had by a Northampton supporter with his two young sons, also leaving early. One was complaining that the game had been "boring", while the other had wanted to leave at half-time.

Now some folk have suggested that if I really want my daughter to like football I should take her to watch Arsenal, a mile away from where we live. And there's a little bit of me that thinks that if she suggested doing that then it would be a good excuse to watch top-quality football on the doorstep.

But, what would be the fun in that? For a start, at glamour spots like Millwall, Brentford, Orient, Barnet, Yeovil, QPR, I can pay for an adult and a kids ticket, burger, chips and a packet of fruit pastilles at about the price of a single ticket at the Emirates. And of course there's Vale Park, although frankly, she thinks the confectionary selection is lacking at the Wembley of the North.

She doesn't want to go every week; I still play 20-odd games a season, so away games in and around London are as often as she will be prepared to go. And it's good quality time. In a 50-mile car journey on Saturday we covered evolution, dinosaurs, religion, and listened to some top tunes on the way home (after the final score round-up).

You even get used to leaving early because you don't want to test their patience with a car park jam.